Colonel Bleep

I too thought I was the only one who remembered Colonel Bleep (although I had forgotten his name momentarily when I was in my early twenties, but my twin brother set me straight soon thereafter), as many in even my high school knew not whereof I spoke when I uttered the name, Colonel Bleep. I saw some episodes on YouTube last year, which made me recall with much fondness my childhood recollections of making sure I caught every episode on the weekday cartoon show, most particularly that opening countdown prior to the rocket launch.

As I look at the episodes on YouTube nowadays, several features of the cartoon seem rather peculiar, to wit: Col. Bleep needs to wear a helmet even on his home planet, whereas his associates Squeak and Scratch never needed to wear helmets, no matter where they were in outer space or which planet they were on. Interesting too, that Col. Bleep never walked, but pedaled that strange unicycle no matter where he went - even on his home planet! But to compare this cartoon, the first color one made for TV, with the likes of the successors, viz., Clutch Cargo, Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Bugs Bunny, is like comparing the Model T Ford to the Motorama models. I do appreciate, however, that there are a select few that still recall with much joy and enthusiasm the erstwhile escapades of Colonel Bleep!

3.... 2.... 1!

Yes. I'll admit that these Colonel Bleep cartoons from 1956 are far from being great, but, all the same, their sometimes-educational stories of interplanetary adventure did have a cute charm all of their own.

These decidedly low-budget, limited-animation cartoons contained almost no dialogue at all between its characters. With the aid of sound effects, most of the stories were told through voice-over narration from actor Noah Tyler.

Colonel Bleep is a futuristic E.T. life-form from the planet Futura. Bleep has set up headquarters here on Earth on Zero-Zero Island, which is positioned on this planet's equator.

Bleep's 2 sidekicks in the show are his loyal space deputies, Squeek, the mute puppet-boy, and Scratch, a caveman recently awakened after several thousand years of deep sleep.

Together this brave trio battle intergalactic villains who pose a serious and immediate threat to the peace & safety of the universe.

It's quite clear that these full-colour cartoons are definitely geared to children, but I still liked them enough to give them a 6-star rating for their nostalgic value.

Yes, the incredible internet has reunited us with Colonel Bleep! Spent years looking for the 50's show which made an indelible mark on our minds and it has surfaced! Thought we were the only ones who remembered, but alas, there are others! This stuff is classic invaluable, priceless history! Its amazing how much time and energy was spent before internet to re-unite with this cartoon. Great to see that others have the same memories and impressions of the show. We have spoken to many folks who just don't remember the Colonel. I suppose that it was not aired in some states. Actually I never knew it was in color since we had black and white. Caw! Caw! Richard

Colonel Bleep was the world's first TV cartoon that was in color. Although barely known about today, I always thought this show was cool since it basically epitomizes the interest people had in science fiction in the 1950s. In my opinion, one of the greatest crimes in animation history is how there were a hundred episodes for this show made, but only around half of them exist today, since a truck containing the show's production equipment was apparently stolen. We can't change the past, so we just have to appreciate the ones that did not suffer this fate. Colonel Bleep focuses on the eponymous title character, a kind of alien who wears a glass helmet with two antennae, and his journeys throughout space to put a stop to interstellar villains like Dr. Destructo. He has two companions to aid him in his missions: a caveman named Scratch, and a sentient puppet named Squeak. The story is laid out in the first episode, which explains that Bleep, a member of a race of beings called Futurans, witnessed through his telescope what appeared to be a nuclear explosion on the faraway planet Earth. To futurans, this was a sign of trouble in outer space, which caught the attention of the futuran high command. Bleep is sent to earth in order to make sure humans don't destroy everything around them with their newfound science, but also to observe earth's customs and people. As for his sidekicks, Scratch was asleep for the entire evolution of mankind, and slept right through it until the first atomic explosion in 1945. This blasted him into the present unharmed. Squeak doesn't really have a backstory, except that he's a puppet and can't talk. As is typical of cartoons around this time, the animation is really limited, but the show makes up for it with creativity. Almost everything in it looks suitably futuristic, such as spaceships and vehicles with angular designs and big tailfins. You don't need animation to draw something that looks good. Eventually, two videotapes containing episodes from the show were released in the early 90s, which contained most of what was known to exist by that point. For over a decade after that, there were no new Colonel Bleep episodes found until 2005, when a new DVD was released which contained 20 never before seen ones. Thanks to things like Youtube, episodes previously thought to be lost are now uploaded as recently as 4 years ago, but since virtually no original production materials of Colonel Bleep are known to exist, it's highly unlikely they'll find all of them unless a miracle happens. Still, I think Colonel Bleep definitely has a place in history, not only for being the precursor to all modern color cartoons, but also since it is entertaining in its own right.

I was another person thinking I was the only one to remember this program. I dutifully and eagerly awoke every Saturday morning to watch Colonel Bleep battle the forces of evil. I was beginning to think I was losing my mind whenever I attempted to discuss the early Saturday morning cartoon lineups of the mid 1960's with anyone of my generation as not a soul, save myself seemed to remember this show, including my brother with whom I watched every week, LOL. My feeling is that the show actually was somewhat ahead of its time and perhaps too cerebral compared to its contemporaries, Johnny Quest, Bugs Bunny Rocky and Bullwinkle. I have not seen or heard of its release to DVD but would love to see them again.